We've shown the world we are on our way up: Clarke

We've shown the world we are on our way up: Clarke

Australia captain Michael Clarke, while delighting in the 4-0 whitewash of India, re-emphasised on Saturday that the triumph was just a staging post to the goal of being the best Test team in the world.

Clarke, who took over as captain in March, was named Man of the Series for his unbeaten 329 in the second Test in Sydney and double century in the 398-run victory at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday.

It completed a remarkable turnaround for Clarke and his team from the start of last year when, as stand-in skipper, he presided over the last rites of Australia's first Ashes series defeat on home soil in 26 years.

The Ashes debacle saw Australia drop to fifth in the world Test rankings and Clarke's stated mission is to return to the top.

"We're currently ranked fourth in the world," he said. "We've got a hell of a lot of work to do to get back to where I see this team going and would love to see this team going.

"But we've played some fantastic cricket. We've shown a lot of people around the world that we're on the way up, which is a really positive sign.

'Bowlers should be proud of what they've achieved'

"I think there's still a lot of improvement needed in all of our games, individually and as a team, but we're getting there. We're getting better every day and that's the most pleasing thing."

Clarke consistently deflected questions about how an Indian side containing so many fine batsmen had performed so badly, preferring to praise his bowling unit, which took 20 wickets in all four Tests.

"I don't want to take any credit away from our bowlers. I think they should be very proud of what they've achieved," he said.

"To be able to get so many great players out on a couple of wickets that were quite hard for batting and then a couple of wickets that were very good for batting, they deserve a lot of credit for that."